The LA Setlist: July 1-7, 2024

It’s easy to see why Columbia Records pursued the teenage Harry Connick, Jr. With his photogenic suave, prodigious stride jazz piano skills, and seductive croon, he was a one-man Rat Pack – but new and young. Connick’s eponymous Columbia debut (he’d already released indie albums as a pre-teen) comprised instrumental jazz standards and his own compositions. That record was certified Gold, but it was when he opened his mouth on the follow-up, 1988’s 20 that his career exploded as he reintroduced traditional pop to mainstream audiences. Alongside Connick’s GRAMMY-winning When Harry Met Sally… movie soundtrack, this kicked down the door to nearly four decades of success not only as a musician, but also acting in the likes of Independence Day and South Pacific. Connick’s most recent album, 2021’s Alone With My Faith, on which he played and sang every note, is a rootsy gospel collection that earned him a 16th GRAMMY nomination.

Tickets to the July 4th Fireworks Spectacular concerts at the Hollywood Bowl website.

New Zealander Maddie North, aka So Below, is a somewhat mysterious goth-pop chanteuse who has quietly racked up impressive streaming stats and underground praise over the past decade. Now LA-based, So Below’s sound is born from anxiety and continues to explore often uncomfortable margins of the human condition less traveled by such melodic and accessible fare. Built upon throbbing, ominous synths and deceptively danceable beats, So Below’s distinguishing magic is North’s quivering, helium-flecked timbre - a glacial living instrument that connects like a sudden shudder in high summer. Released in May, So Below’s “What We Like” features GrimesAI under a pilot program that lets artists legally use Canadian singer Grimes’ AI voiceprint. Silver Lake’s El Cid, known for flamenco dancing and tapas, might seem an incongruous setting for such angst-filled expression, but its intimate, subterranean aura will likely enhance So Below’s gentle seduction and otherworldly yet hugely relatable confessions. Tickets at See Tickets.

Recording and performing as Ghost Data, Houston’s Xzaviyer Hoffpauir draws inspiration from video game composers like Akihiko Narita (Capcom/Resident Evil) and Nobuo Uematsu (Square Enix/Final Fantasy) to create what fans have christened his “dreamsynth” signature. Ghost Data’s exquisite sound design exists in a universe of his imagining inhabited by characters like The Shepherdess, the Void Walker, and the Void Queen. Known for his ethereal, progressive style, Hoffpauir has also branched out into dark, industrial-adjacent midtempo adventures over a very prolific decade as Ghost Data. As well as remixing artists he counts as major influences like Purity Ring and Porter Robinson, he’s also reworked tracks by the likes of Blanke, Static, and Aivi & Surasshu. The solo live performances of this former DJ are rave-ready happenings that are predictably, given his video game aesthetic, heavy on transporting visuals that tie in with his ongoing sonic and narrative odyssey.

Tickets to the 18+ show at Dice.

Fans of The Airborne Toxic Event are likely aware that the band’s bassist, Adrian Rodriguez, has a solo musical alter ego, Blackpaw. Born (pun intended) of a motorcycle accident that left Rodriguez bedridden with mostly a guitar for company, Blackpaw blends breathy post-punk starkness with dancefloor-friendly ‘80s beats ‘n synths. Debuting in 2017 with “Defenseless,” a collab with George Lewis Jr. of Twin Shadow, Rodriguez offered wistful, semi-distracted vocals atop throwback electronics that immediately earned online traction. While the placement of Blackpaw’s more organic “Scream” on the Netflix series Never Have I Ever seduced a whole new slew of fans, Rodriguez’s solo incarnation remains an underground, IYKYK phenomenon that exists in the cracks between his work as a DJ, producer and bassist. Savor this somewhat rare Blackpaw appearance at the excellent Zebulon before Rodriguez heads off on an epic U.S. trek with The Airborne Toxic Event in September. Tickets at Dice.

While New Kids on the Block were far from the first “boy band,” they cemented the five-piece, all-male singing-and-dancing format echoed by NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys a decade later. Although created by former New Edition producer Maurice Starr, NKOTB had a core of Boston schoolmates built around Donnie Wahlberg including, for its first few months, Wahlberg’s 13-year-old younger brother Mark, now a household-name actor. Marrying dance-oriented R&B grooves to massive pop hooks, slick stage routines and fresh-faced regular-dude appeal, NKOTB became all-powerful with a mostly preadolescent fanbase in the late 1980s, ushering in the teen pop boom of the late ‘90s. Much guilty-pleasure love has surrounded NKOTB since they reunited in 2008, as evidenced by their headlining the 18,000-capacity Kia Forum, with support from Paula Abdul and DJ Jazzy Jeff. Tickets at AXS.

Although they enjoyed festival headliner status in the early 1990s, LA’s Redd Kross has largely been one of those bands whose critical acclaim and cult-level reverence, especially among fellow musicians, outstrips their commercial rewards. Formed by literal kids in 1980, the punk/bubblegum/metal quartet, anchored by brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald, became an academy for subsequently successful players including Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks, Bad Religion), Jack Irons (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam), and Vicki Peterson (the Bangles). Perhaps their stylistic mélange and refusal to align with a well-defined genre confused listeners and cost them fans, but the sheer songwriting prowess and innate melodic/harmonic talents of the McDonald siblings deserved more chart success than 1990 US mini-hit “Annie’s Gone” and a sole album-chart appearance (and # 99 in Australia, at that). The upside is devotees getting to see this level of single minded talent in the cozy confines of Alex’s Bar. Tickets at Dice.

While Pansy Division’s claim to be the first openly gay rock band at the time of their 1991 formation might be debated, there’s no doubt that they were prominent queercore pioneers and probably the movement’s most commercially successful act. The San Francisco trio (more recently a four-piece) infectiously harnesses 1960s melodic pop sensibilities to a slightly ragged punk energy and often humorous lyrics exploring LGBT issues and relationships. Pansy Division’s super-prolific 1990s included being the opening act for exploding former Lookout! Records labelmates Green Day on the latter’s Dookie tour, which put both the band and queercore before mainstream audiences in the thousands for the first time. A tour with Rancid four years later further expanded Pansy Division’s footprint, but their activity waned in the New Millenium, with their most recent album, 2016’s critically embraced Quite Contrary, being their first in seven years and yet to be followed up.

Tickets to the all-ages show at Lodge Room.

Austin dreampoppers Blushing enhanced their subgenre cred with collaborations with Ride’s Mark Gardener (on 2022’s Possessions album) and Lush figurehead Miki Berenyi (on “Blame,” from that same record). Comprising two married couples – vocalist/bassist Christina and guitarist Noe Carmona, and vocalist/guitarist Michelle and drummer Jacob Soto – they evoke classic Brit shoegaze/jangle standouts like The Sundays, Curve, and the aforementioned Ride, retaining those bands’ gauzy atmospherics while offering less abstract, more accessible song structures and arrangements. Released in April, Blushing’s third album, Sugarcoat is aptly titled, sweetening as it does some pretty tortured guitars and propellant beats with Christina Carmona’s mesmerized vocal and heady harmonizing with Michelle Soto. While chiefly reaching back decades for inspiration, Blushing nudges that sonic heritage forward rather than becoming floppy-fringed reenactors. And their live shows are more fun than the albums might imply, with dexterous drumming, the couples’ palpable chemistry, and plenty of smiles. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

One of stoner rock’s more prominent exponents, Portland’s Red Fang have had two albums storm the Billboard 200, tours with the likes of Megadeth and Mastodon under their (surely studded) belts, and even have their music and image on a production pinball machine. Their riff-heavy recordings and bruising live shows are distinguished by a straight-ahead, no-frills musical approach and far-from-serious attitude, including humorous videos and incongruously smiley headshots. Equally adept at sludgy, steroidal Sabbath-isms; Queens of the Stone Age-style melodicism; sing-along hooks; and spacey Mastodon-esque left turns, there can be very few stoner rock fans who don’t find something to love in Red Fang. Their most recent full-length, 2021’s Arrows may not be the quartet’s finest work but, like many of their ilk, sonic dependability and on-stage enthusiasm are in their DNA, and both will be amply displayed at the Teragram. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

With their corporate collabs, dearth of socially conscious lyrics, a (literally) Kardashian-lovin’ drummer, and a founder member who’s now a cop, Blink-182 may appear the antithesis of first-wave punk. But look closer and you’ll see a band whose infantile humor (they’re incorporated as “Poo Poo Butt, Inc.”) and bro-ish banter was itself flipping off the largely uber-earnest grunge that was dominating guitar music at the time of their 1992 formation. And if it’s authenticity you’re after, this trio from sunny San Diego never remotely pretended to be anything but middle-class lads mostly concerned with girlfriend and parent issues rather than instigating revolution (titling their 1999 mega-selling third album Enema of the State almost lampoons the very idea). Instead, Blink-182 are deft pop songsmiths with an incredible drummer whose image and ethos resonates with way more young people than glue sniffing in a squat or hurling petrol bombs at protests. Tickets at AXS.

At age 80, Patti LaBelle has cemented her legacy as an all-time R&B great, the “Godmother of Soul,” and a gay icon. And while she hasn’t released an album since 2017’s jazzy Bel Hommage (see what she did, there?), she can still headline Hollywood Bowl-size venues at will. With the sheer quality of her singing a given, it’s the versatility of LaBelle’s voice that sets her apart, traversing as she has girl group success with LaBelle (“Lady Marmalade”), funk, soul and, primarily in the ‘80s, chart ubiquity in dance music and balladry. With Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner no longer with us, a LaBelle show is a rare chance to witness one of her era’s original divas, and she remains relentlessly glamorous and possessed of pipes that still send shivers. Expect a night of wall-to-wall classics, and much mutual warmth between artist and audience. Tickets at AXS.